High School Bass Angler Signs With Bryan College

Jake Mims, a 17-year-old junior at Alexander High school in Douglasville, recently turned his love and passion for fishing into a Scholarship at Bryan Collage.

Jake has had a passion for fishing for a long time. He started fishing around the age of 4. When he was 8 years old, Jake got a first-place win in a tournament on Lake Kedron. From then on, he started fishing youth tournaments and has done really great.

“The biggest thing to do is put time in on the water,” said Jake. “I always put the faith in God. The main thing I like to do is stay consistent in tournaments.”

Jake fished many of the Georgia B.A.S.S Nation High School tournaments, but one of his fishing partners graduated. Jake ended up finding another partner and has done really well with him since and is still fishing with him. He has a total of nine tournament wins in his career. After Jake’s sophomore year, they pulled all his records to make a résumé to send to a few colleges. Not too long after submitting, Bryan College, In Dayton, Tenn., contacted Jake saying they wanted him to come visit the college.

“In early February, we set a time and date to come check out Bryan College,” said Jake. “We sat down with Mike Keen, the head fishing coach at Bryan College, and had lunch. Everyone was really welcoming. I did not feel like the outsider. The campus was absolutely great. We ended up sitting down in Coach Keen’s office and talked about the college. He said, ‘We would like to have you on the team with a scholarship.’ I told Coach I would get back to him.”

Jake talked to his family about it and going to the college. He made the decision to call back Coach Mike Keen to tell him he accepts.

“We set up the date to sign,” said Jake. “The anticipation and excitement for the signing was getting to me. It was a really fun day. There were some really special people attended the signing like my good friend I grew up fishing with, Wynne Lougher. My fishing coach Rick Hollis, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, cousin, sister, mother and father also attended.

Jake’s father, Roy, was extremely proud at Jake’s consistency and becoming a future college angler at Bryan College.

“I am happy to have someone of Jake’s caliber with us—one great young man from a great family,” said Bryan College Coach Mike Keen.

Jake is the first person to sign a fishing scholarship at Alexander High School, and possibly one of the first juniors in Georgia to ever sign a fishing scholarship. This scholarship will be a great start for Jake’s tournament career.